The Other Guys: Another bland comedy

Desk jockey cops Allen Gamble and Terry Hoitz are tired of their fellow officers gaining all of the glory. But when they get their big break to finally start doing some real police work, will they be able to crack the case?

There comes a point during The Other Guys where it’s conceivable that the audience started to cringe every time Will Ferrell, as Detective Allen Gamble, tried to make another joke that fell flat on its face. They cringed because they remembered all of the other memorable screen characters Ferrell is responsible for (Ricky Bobby and Ron Burgundy for instance) and wondered if he has somehow lost his touch because Gamble, and the entire film for that matter, was not fun to watch. It’s not as though there were not funny moments in the film, but they were almost singularly provided by other cast members such as Michael Keaton (as the TLC referencing Captain) and Mark Wahlberg as Gamble’s partner Terry Hoitz (who should have been given more of a chance to “fly like a peacock”). It’s not even much of a stretch to say the film would have better if Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson (a.k.a. The Rock) had played the roles of Gamble and Hoitz. To cast those two as the bumbling “other guy” cops would have given the film the satirical bite that director Adam McKay was looking for.

Instead, the audience was given two hours of Ferrell trying too hard, and never really succeeding.

Grade: C-